‘Chicken Soup With Barley’, a mirror to the social and political situation, of England and the World, from the 1930’s to the 1950’s

I am going to present a close reading of how Arnold Wesker has depicted the social and political background of a Jewish family in London between the 30’s and 50’s, together with references of the political situation of the whole World, which influenced the country’s (in-)stability. Dividing it in different paragraphs which relate each act with each time frame and quoting all the historical mentions.

On Act One we are introduced to the 30’s, specifically we enter in October of 1936 with the Kahn’s and it’s friends at the kitchen of the Kahn’s basement (typical of the time when the play was written as this was so that the scenery was cheap and affordable as well as bringing proximity with the audience, that’s why it was called Kitchen-sink drama). Henry says, “streets are packed with people […] they’ve got barricades at Gardiner corner” (Act 1,  scene 1) The slogan said to be is “Madrid today-London tomorrow” this makes reference to the Spanish Civil War that was in that moment bursting, which was backed by France, Italy and Germany, also referred to this in the text, Monty: “Germany and Italy are supplying them with guns, tanks and airplanes” (Act 1,  scene 1), meaning to the Fascist side in the war. All of them being on the strike which were called ‘The Hunger Marches’ in which people tried to draw political attention on the situation of the big unemployment spectrum, more than 2 million unemployed. As they remark, it is full of policemen and “Mosley’s blackshirts” (Act 1,  scene 1). Sir Oswald Mosley was the president of the BUF (the British Union of Fascists) who got it’s inspiration from the Nazi’s and on Italy but who never gained any seat in Parliament. It was a time in which minor parties started to gain popularity offering radical solutions for Britain’s economic problems, and as well as the BUF there was also the British Communist Party, it’s core being young intellectuals but the vast majority industrial workers. They gained one seat on 1935 and there inspiration came, obviously, from the Soviet Union’s leader, Joseph Stalin, the father of communism I would say. We get many more references to communism as when Monty says to have seen Harry “at Cable Street; he was waving the old red flag” (Act 1,  scene 2) as well, when Cissie tells the rest how a member of their Party gets on the barrow of a vegetable store and starts to quote Lenin’s letter, “Let us now remember the lessons of the Russian Revolution” (Act 1,  scene 2). Some of the characters do some kind of comments which may give the sense, to the audience or reader, of some kind of prediction of the Second World War as for example when Henry says, “So you don’t have to shout […] there’s going to be a big war soon, a Fascist war” (Act 1,  scene 1) and Monty also does a similar reference on Act 1, scene 2, “I bet we have a revolution soon. Hitler won’t stop at Spain, you know. You watch him go and you watch the British Government lick his arse until he spits in their eye. Then we’ll move in”. In both quotes they are true, Germany was at the time trying to expand their territory starting with the remilitarization of the Rhineland, reincorporation of Saar and annexation of Austria. Britain also getting involved as Chamberlain (the Prime Minister at the time) promised ‘peace for our time’ with the policy of appeasement, which failed once Germany tried to invade Poland, and the Second World War bursted, when this policy failed and war with Germany was inevitable, this was on 1939. Here the first act finishes, with lots of background information on our backs introduced by the characters of the play.

This second act is introduced by a stage direction which says, “Late April 1946 – the war has come and gone […] The working class in a little more respectable now, they have not long since voted in a Labour Government”. At this moment WWII has passed one year ago. Britain is totally bankrupt, although it appeared to be victorious. From 1940-1945 Winston Churchill was the Prime Minister and managed to be a great politician during the war but afterwards, although the polls were on his favor, definitely wasn’t re-elected, his way of governing was good but these qualities weren’t near the domestic politics needed at the moment. It is made reference to the government at that moment by Ronnie, “With a Labour majority in the House and two of our own Party members” (Act 2,  scene 1). Also, the industrial sector was neglected and outdated, and this affected the volume of production, this is shown in the text by Harry when he says, “Is it my fault if the garment industry is so unstable?” (Act 2,  scene 1) , this being said in the moment in which he has been fired. At this moment in the play the group which once fought all together for those socialist ideals is starting to shatter, the first one to show this repulse towards her past position is Ada, the daughter of the Kahn’s, “I don’t believe in the right to organize people. I’m tired, Mother. […] I spent eighteen months waiting for Dave to return from Spain and now I’m waiting six years for him to come home from a war against Fascism and I am tired. […] How many friends has the Party lost because of lousy, meaningless titles they gave to people? […] The only rotten society is an industrial society. […] What audacity tells you you can harbour a billion people in a theory? (Act 2,  scene 1) She also claims she’s moving to the countryside, “When Dave comes back we shall leave London and live on the country. That’ll be our socialism. No political activity”. This was a common dream at the moment, an obsession that society of the time had, to move to the countryside seeking for fresh air and new ideals, far from the city, leaving all the problems to the past. Her brother, still a fifteen year old young boy is in the moment of his life in which he wants to get totally involved in this progressive environment and mocks on her sister, “Ada and Dave are struggling in a tied cottage in the country. Ada suckles a beautiful baby. They are happy. Two Jews in the Fens” (Act 2,  scene 2) while her aunt, Cissie also claims they ara “Lunatics” (Act 2,  scene 2), another example of a still active character in the Party. It is shown that there are still strikes going on as Cissie says, “We’ve got a strike. Dilingers are probably going to lock it’s workers” (Act 2,  scene 2) by this showing again how the industrial sector is in decline and not giving work to people. Curiously both industries mentioned are clothing factories which show that once after the war there’s no demand of clothing anymore, maybe indicating that these businesses helped doing the uniforms of the army or that proportioned materials for the confection of the clothing’s of some active group in war time. Finally at the end of this act there is an attack to the government and/or society said by Ronnie, “Capitalist exploiters” (Act 2,  scene 2). It was a moment in which the country had received money from the Marshall Plan, intended for those countries which were suffering after the war so they could recover. Britain received exactly from this plan $2.7 millions from 1949 till 1951 that the Plan ended. As well they asked US for a $4 billion loan which they were granted with. With all this money they didn’t improve the industrial infrastructures, neither the country’s ones. The roads were neglected, no motorways until 1958, poor communication systems… It was a time of great national waste, of wasting the state provisions in, for example, maintaining the army, although there were budget cuts, while countries as US and Japan did not spend any money in this. The first politic to realize there was a problem was John Manyard Keynes, the chief economic advisor of the Labour Party, who warned the MP’s and gave the ‘Dunkirk Solution’.

The third act starts on November 1955, at the moment there’s a totally unbranched structure inside the familiar structure of the beginning. For example about Cissie is said that, “The trade union members retired her. She live on a pension, visits the relatives –  you know…”. (Act 3,  scene 1) Also, Bessie and Monty Blatt visit Sarah and Harry; Sarah asks if he’s still involved in the Party while Monty answers, “No, Sarah – I’m not still in the Party […] I haven’t got any solutions any more. Sarah, believe me. There’s nothing more to life than a house, some friends, and a family – take my word” (Act 3,  scene 1). Again, another character whom is totally out of any political involvement. They also talk about the past moments in which they were both involved in politics, Monty reveals to her many things that happened inside the Party which were unknown at the moment, “Did Dave ever tell you the way some of the Party members refused to fight alongside the Trotskyists? And one or two of the Trotskyists didn’t come back and they weren’t killed in the fighting either? And remember Itzack Pheffer – the Soviet Yiddish writer? Where’s Itzack Pheffer? everyone used to say. Well, we know now, don’t we. The great ‘leader’ is dead now, and we know, The whole committee of the Jewish Anti-Fascist League were shot! Shot, Sarah! In our land of socialism. That was our land. We didn’t believe the stories then!” (Act 3,  scene 1). Here we can feel the bad tempere in which Monty is saying this words to Sarah to make her understand why he doesn’t believe any more in those ideas in which some time before he used to give his life for. This was a common position at the time, people had lost their ideals, they didn’t believe any more in the people they used to do because of the past events. It was also the time were the Cold War was in its climax stage. There were world clashes between communism and capitalism, mostly on the Northern Hemisphere, as the Korean War, the Space Race… And Europe was still divided into two, the West and the Soviet bloc, this division also called the Iron Curtain. At the end, Ronnie the Kahn’s son returns from Paris where he was working as a cook (he had also dismissed his ideal of becoming a ‘socialist poet’). He comes back home totally disgusted with the ideals he once had, “I – I’m sick, Sarah!” (Act 3,  scene 2). He tells her mother why and what he feels, “What has happened to all the comrades, Sarah! I even blush when I use that word. […] I feel ashamed to use words like democracy and freedom and brotherhood. They don’t have meaning any more. […] I was going to be a great socialist writer. […] Didn’t it hurt you to read about the murder of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee in the Soviet Union? […] I’ve lost my faith and I’ve lost my ambition. […] The family you always wanted has disintegrated” (Act 3,  scene 2). He follows by listing the actual position of all the characters of the play, “Dave and Ada in the Fens, and Prince working in a second-hand shop, and Uncle Hyme stuck smugly at home and Auntie Cissie once devoted – once involved – wandering from relative to relative. What happened to us? “ (Act 3,  scene 2). There is also a moment in which they make reference to the Hungarian invasion of the communist troops because of anti-communist uprisings, “I don’t suppose you’ve bothered to read what happened in Hungary” (Act 3,  scene 2) . He ends his speech by saying to her “You’re still a communist!” (Act 3,  scene 2), the word ‘communist’ used as an insult as he repulses them at this moment. Sarah, being the only character that still has the same willings, politically, as at the beginning, says, “So I’m still a communist! Shoot me then! I’ve always been one. When you were a baby and there was unemployment and everybody was thinking so – all the world was a communist. But it’s different now. Now people have forgotten […] You give them a few shillings in the bank and they can buy a television so they think it’s all over, they don’t have to think any more! Is that what you want? A world where people don’t think any more?” (Act 3,  scene 2). She strongly answers her son and at the same time she depicts the society of this decade because, for many the 50’s were a Golden Age, people were enthusiastic because the government was doing well in taking the country out of desolation, there was a economic and employment expansion, they transformed Britain’s social and cultural landscape but it was a society based on capitalism and consumerism, taken by the Conservatives, being Harold Macmillian the Prime Minister.

With this play Wesker tries to reproduce major problems of his time. He catalyzes Britain’s society with the Kahn’s family. Close to everyday life and with a common speech, he makes it understandable to every kind of audience. He can also, in this way, touch universal issues that happen along the plays contextual timeline, that at the same time is indispensable for explaining the characters life. Political disillusionment is very important for the whole play as it’s the root of the storyline. It is where everything starts and at the same time the result of every event in the 20 years setting. To this family it seems impossible to maintain any communication without placing it in a political context. It is also very interesting for me to study this play because it perfectly fits into a 21st century context. The Kahn’s could be actually a Spanish family living, for example, in Valencia. Wesker has done a gorgeous work capturing the basics of a family, and at the same time transmitting all their feelings and their anxieties.

Academic year 2013/2014
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
© María Traver Boix
traboix@alumni.uv.es